‘Goes without saying’ ex-Auburn HC lead candidate for Arkansas if Pittman is fired
“It goes without saying” that former Auburn football head coach Gus Malzahn is the leading candidate to replace Sam Pittman if the Arkansas coach is fired following a 48-10 Razorbacks loss to the Tigers on November 11 — this, at least, according to FanSided’s John Buhler.
“In my opinion, Arkansas does not fire Sam Pittman without assurances of if the Razorbacks can get their top choice,” Buhler prefaced before saying, “It goes without saying that top candidate would be UCF head coach Gus Malzahn. Although he has not been as good in Orlando as he was previously at Auburn, and briefly at Arkansas State before that, Arkansas is Malzahn’s alma mater. He played wide receiver there in the mid-1980s.”
Buhler added insult to injury for Arkansas by claiming that such a hire wouldn’t have the top teams in the SEC “shaking in their boots,” but would have other SEC programs in the Midwest/South Central.
“I don’t know if this hire would have guys like Nick Saban and Kirby Smart shaking in their boots, but I can name at least three teams that would absolutely hate this: Missouri, Texas A&M and in some capacities, maybe even Texas?”
Hugh Freeze replacing Bryan Harsin as Auburn football head coach ‘seems good’
Buhler offered the most lukewarm praise possible for Hugh Freeze amidst AU’s first three-game conference win-streak since Malzahn by labeling the Tigers’ replacing Bryan Harsin with the Oxford, Mississippi native as “good.”
“Auburn has already moved on Malzahn years ago,” Buhler said of AU’s thoughts on a potential Malzahn to Arkansas move before saying, “They may have stupidly gotten off the Gus Bus, but hiring Hugh Freeze after the Bryan Harsin disaster seems good.”
Ending 7-5 may seem like a mediocre season to most, but Auburn carried itself out of a massive recruiting hole from Harsin’s infamous under-recruitment while employed on the Plains.
Besides perhaps the October 21 Ole Miss matchup, there’s not a game on the schedule Auburn realistically could’ve won that they didn’t. And that would be forgiven with an Iron Bowl upset of Alabama to close out the regular season.